Bolingbrook freshman sensation Jonas Williams throws 7 TD passes to topple Minooka

BOLINGBROOK — When a player has a spectacular start in his first varsity football game, one of the more obvious questions is where exactly did that player come from.

So when Bolingbrook quarterback Jonas Williams was asked that very same question after he threw for 407 yards and seven touchdowns in the Raiders’ 49-12 win over visiting Minooka on Friday night, he had a simple, humble answer.

“Humphrey Middle School,” Williams said with a smile.

That’s right. Williams, who completed 19 of his 24 passes in the game, has been a high school student for exactly eight days.

He hadn’t even completely secured the nod at the quarterback position until very late into preseason play. But it didn’t take long for it to become pretty clear that the Raiders coaching staff had put the right guy at the controls.

Williams came out firing on the Bolingbrook’s first play from scrimmage, completing a 30-yard play to Kyan Berry-Johnson, who made an athletic adjustment to insure that the first pass his freshman quarterback threw went down as a positive.

It was only the start of a massive night for the Raiders and Williams.

“The coaches prepared me very well and I put in the work,” Williams said. “I have trust in my teammates. It’s really easy when you have Kyan Berry, I’Marion Stewart and Josh Robinson. It’s like bread and butter.”

Williams buttered a lot of bread. Williams connected with Berry-Johnson for a 3-yard score to get Bolingbrook on the board and linked up with Chico Thomas on another scoring strike just minutes later.

Then Williams went back to Berry-Johnson just before half, with the junior standout pulling in his second score, basically by twisting his body like an acrobat in order to seize the ball from a waiting defender.

Minooka tried to keep pace by playing a form of keep away from the Raiders, and that seemed to be working for awhile. After Bolingbrook jumped out to the early 14-0 lead, Minooka pieced together a long drive the soaked up a good chunk of the second quarter and was capped on a 13-yard touchdown reception from Connor Christiansen to trim the deficit to 14-6.

Bolingbrook quickly answered with a touchdown pass from Williams to Berry-Johnson. Minooka then once again went on a long tactical drive that seemed poised to pay off, but the Raiders picked off a pass at the goal line.

In the second half, Williams showed he was more than willing to let his receivers do their thing. After a solid kickoff return, the Raiders needed three plays for Williams to hit Stewart for a 6-yard score. Williams then showing a wisdom beyond his years setting up a pair of screen plays that went for massive touchdowns, the first a 92-yarder to Kaleb Miller and the second took the form of a 65-yard jaunt for Kelrod Leaks where he weaved and swerved his way down the field.

A few minutes later, Williams found Berry-Johnson for what appeared to be a relatively short gainer, but Berry-Johnson turned on the afterburners and 55 yards later was in the end zone for his third touchdown and made for Williams’ seventh TD pass of the game.

“We’ve been telling quarterbacks for years, that that’s how you do it,” Bolingbrook coach John Ivlow said. “You hit the doink and you let the guys do what they can do with it. Because they can.”

Minooka’s relatively young defensive front got taught some lessons that coach Matt Harding hopes will prove beneficial down the road.

“[Bolingbrook’s] speed is unmatched. They got athletes out in space and their kids made plays,” Harding said. “The team you saw tonight will not be the same team you’ll see in Week 9. We’ll grow as a team. We’ll get better as a team.”